The Mole: Mushroom Kingdom
by Logan Aura
Summary: The Mole. A game of mystery, of distrust, of betrayal, and of money. In this game, 9 contestants play for the chance to win a large sum of coins. But one contestant is looking to decease that sum as much as they possibly can. Can you figure out? Who... Is the Mole.
1. 1-1: Simple Trainings

_Welcome, to The Mole. A game of betrayal, deciet, lies, treachery, and sabotogue. In this game, ten players have been chosen to compete for a large sum of coins. During this game, however, only one of them will win the money, while eight of them will fall to the sabotuer. the Mole._

_the Mole is a red mark upon the game. Each and every member except for them are playing to increase the money in the team's pot in hopes that they will win it in the end. However, the Mole's goal? To create chaos and confusion in the team, to hide themselves within, to make it almost impossible for the team to work together to earn money, and to __**personally **__sabotauge challenges in hope that the players do not notice._

_The players' main quest is simple. Learn who the Mole is, and answer questions about them during the quizzes at the end of each episode, so they can survive the game until the end. The winner? Gets every last coin that has been put into the team pot. The losers all go home with nothing. the Mole goes home with the satisfaction of being a sabotuer._

_The players have been brought into the world of the original Paper Mario, from Toad Town, to Koopa Bros Fortress, to Tubba Blubba's Castle and beyond, they will face a multitude of challenges, trying to earn money. But, let's begin shall we? To the first episode of..._

_The Mole: Mushroom Kingdom._

A woman stood at Toad town's station, tapping her foot gently against the cobblestone below. Her rainbow patterned dress shone in the light as she moved her fingers to her ear, activating the microphone there. "Producer, the train's on its way. Shall I begin?" A muffled noise came from her headset and she nodded, turning to the camera. "Welcome, to The Mole. Today, our contestants shall be arriving by train to begin their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom. As you know, one of them is not who they seem, but that matter is for another time." The woman brushed her white hair behind her ears, before curtsying to the camera.

"I shall be your hostess for this game, Timpani Bleck."

**Given name**: Timpani

**Surname**: Bleck

**Birthday**: 7/13

**Occupation**: Television Show Host

"I do not know who the Mole is either, so I will not slip up and accidentally reveal too much. So don't ask!" The human pointed at the camera with a glare, before returning to her more serious state. "That was a personal request. So let's begin the game, and try to see if we can't figure out what's going on together." She walked off to the side, standing beside a Green thumb print patterned sign with a few bags below it.

The first car of the train carrying the contestants was a soft shade of blue, and it opened up to show a goomba with a red ascot and miner's hat, looking around quickly with her blond ponytail whipping through the air.

**Given name**: Goombella

**Surname**: Goom

**Birthday**: 12/3

**Occupation**: Archaeology Student

"Wow, this is so much different that Rogueport! Definitely a good change of pace from our last adventure!" Goombella turned to the car as a very well-known figure left the car. He jumped over the gap between the car and station right before the door closed behind them, and watched as it moved forward for the next car.

He adjusted his red cap, nodding softly. "Agreed. Always nice to be back in Toad Town. Been a long time admittedly since I've seen it like this though..."

**Given name**: Mario

**Surname**: Mario

**Birthday**: 7/30

**Occupation**: Hero/Plumber

Timpani spoke up and gestured for the two contestants to approach her. "That's due to the constant renovations Toad Town goes through after each of Bowser's attacks. Peach recently found the old plans for this one, so she- GAH!" Mario immediately tackled the host into a hug, a wide grin on his face.

"Tippi! It's so good to see you! After that whole incident with Dimentio I was worried you'd died when you did the thing with your husband and-" The host immediately shoved Mario off, pushing the male to the floor and glaring at him

"Mario! Professionalism! Get it! We're on international television right now!" Mario glanced at the camera and chuckled softly, his face slowly matching his shirt. Tippi moved her hand to her microphone again. "What're the chances of that getting cut out? 0%? I was afraid of that." The host stayed silent, glaring at the Yellow car as it opened up for the next few contestants.

A hoodie wearing koopa stepped off first, rubbing at the bandage on his nose as he whistled slightly. "Oh wow... This place is really nice. A lot different from Petalburg, that's for sure."

**Given** **name**: Koops

**Surname**: Koo

**Birthday**: 1/5

**Occupation**: Mayor

"I'll show you around sometime!" Mario held his hand out towards Koops, and they shook hands in greeting before music started to play.

Tippi immediately mumbled something about a stupid clause in a contract as the famous actress floated off of the train, laughing jovially. "Oh how wonderful it is to be in the spotlight as myself! It's been a long time." She gestured at the Boomboxer who was playing her introductory music and he tapped his head to turn it off. "Thank you dear. I know it was an odd request, but I couldn't help the theatrics."

**Given name**: Flurrie

**Surname**: Cumula

**Birthday**: 5/2

**Occupation**: Actress

The cloud-like woman kissed the aid's cheek and sent him off, before turning to Tippi. "Ah, what a beautiful dress you have. Wherever did you get it?"

"My husband made it for me out of a rainbow. He's a magician." Tippi stayed silent after that though, tapping her foot softly against the pavement as the next car slowly moved. The old friends started speaking with one another energetically, catching up and talking over one another.

"I actually got nominated and elected for Mayor! Koopie is having our first child sometime soon and Dad's so happy about it!"

"I've been busy saving Peach and the world a few more times. I'm here to take a break from all that really since it's just been stressful"

"I'm taking some classes to be a teacher as well! After seeing the Shadow queen's temple I couldn't help but want to share my findings."

"The play based on our adventure did very well, and I got scouted for a television show. I'm not used to it however, so I applied to this."

"GONZALES!" Just as Mario had tackled Tippi, he was soon tackled by a teenage-looking blue Yoshi who slammed into his side in a hug. "Been a long time! How's it goin'?"

**Given name**: Yoshi

**Surname**: Gonzales

**Birthday**: 6/6

**Occupation**: Fighter

Mario gave the fighter a huge grin. "Going good. How's it been with you? Looks like you've grown a lot." Mario held his hand up to Yoshi's head, eyeballing him about five feet tall now.

"Heh, been doing my best to live up to the Great Gonzalez! Er, well Mario." Yoshi rubbed under his nose carefully. "Still gotta get used to your real name."

A soft twinkling giggle sounded and Yoshi's shadow disappeared from underneath him, before a red hat popped out, followed by a purple figure. "I thought it was cute how you always called him Gonzales. Though it does make sense why you'd change, you'll need to know his real name after all if he's the Mole."

**Given name**: Vivian

**Surname**: Darque

**Birthday**: 4/1

**Occupation**: Jeweler

Goombella rolled her eyes and stared at Vivian. "Yeah right. Like they'd pick Mario to be the mole. He's way too nice to be it."

The Shadow Siren let out another giggle, putting a hand to her mouth. "You never know, Goombella. Maybe I'm the Mole? Or Koops? or Yoshi? They could pick anyone at all they wanted."

Tippi gestured the conductor to continue along the line of the cars. "Of course. You never know, the most trustworthy of people could have been chosen because they knew people'd believe them."

An older voice called from the White car. "Quite a pickle, I feel. You never know whether your closest friend or your worst enemy in this game is the one lying through their teeth." The ship-wheel-fused bob-omb looked at the gap between the car and the platform. "... Can one of you give me a hand, I don't wish to fall."

**Given name**: Bobbery

**Surname**: Shipshape

**Birthday**: 8/23

**Occupation**: Ship Navigator

Koops helped Bobbery over the gap and smiled. "You watched the foreign stuff too?"

"Of course! I had to prepare myself some way. I think I have a good strategy for this game."

A soft giggle came from the train as a small white mouse hopped over the gap expertly, glancing to the car and her fellow rider. "Well everyone should. Otherwise, you'll be out as soon as possible."

**Given name**: Eva

**Surname**: Mowz

**Birthday**: 3/8

**Occupation**: Badge Shop Owner

Mario thought about his own strategy, to basically just play the game and have fun. While not the best for the quizzes, he was happy with it. "Nice to see you again, Ms. Mowz."

"Please call me Eva, my hunk of cheese~" She jumped up and pecked Mario on the cheek for a moment, causing the plumber to laugh.

"Is that everyone?" Koops counted the people there. "This was everyone on our adventure, wasn't it?" He turns to Tippi, who looked towards the last, black car.

"There's two more contestants. You've met them on your adventure. One of them we had to have some... complicated things to include them."

"I do have to thank the producer and the Princess for allowing me to compete with the rest of you." A humanoid figure steps off from the last car, brushing off their white button up shirt and tan dress pants.

**Given name**: TEC

**Surname**: Naught

**Birthday**: 1/3

**Occupation**: Programmer/Robot

"... Who are you?" All the other contestants stared at him and he shook his head, running a hand through his short black hair.

"TEC. Peach and the producer found someone to create a robot for me to house in after the X-naut base was destroyed. Do not worry however, I'm only as physically capable as the other humans in the Mushroom Kingdom." He holds his hands up once he noticed one of the others glaring at him. "Maybe less so, since they prioritized my mental capacities."

_Mario: I honestly don't like judging people immediately, but TEC is a bit suspicious. The producer put so much effort into a realistic robot? I really don't think someone'd just randomly go "Hey, let's do this for a contestant who will possibly get eliminated first." ... Then again he did mention Peach as well, and Peach **is** the kind of person who would do something like that._

_ Ema: TEC seems like a lovely character, but too obviously defending himself in my eyes. He could simply be searching for approval... Or he could be preparing to fail a physical challenge soon._

Hopping across the gap, and watching the train head off to the parts unknown, a pink hatted female toad looked around, before nervously glancing at Mario and ducking her head, her cheeks beginning to match her face.

**Given name: **Toadette

**Surname**: Mush

**Birthday**: 10/31

**Occupation**: Florist

The toad stayed at the back as the others happily spoke to one another, before watching as Timpani coughed quietly. "Now that that is settled, I have a few things to do-" The human pulled out a multitude of colored notebooks, each with a bright green stamp on the cover, and placed them on a table beside the books. Each one had a silver number embroidered on the bottom left corner of it, though the numbers were unusual. Each one had one digit that many times, except for one that was numberless. "Here are your journals. These will be the only writing devices you shall have for the course of the game, unless there are some for the challenges. All information you think is of importance should belong here. Now then-" She passed out every notebook carefully to everyone. Red numberless to Vivian first, yellow 1 to Mario, orange 22 to Goombella, pink 333 to Toadette, blue 4444 to TEC.

55555 was a white notebook to Bobbery, 666666 was a black notebook handed to Flurrie- and Vivian and Mario were both seen in the background scribbling everyone's numbers down. Koops got a purple notebook with 7777777 on it, causing the koopa to laugh. "I need all the luck I can get." The green 88888888 went to the white mouse , leaving 999999999 on indigo to the Yoshi.

_Vivian: I had to write that Flurrie got 666 666! It's the number of the beast and the Mole's definitely devilish. Maybe it's one of the "Clues"... I wish I got Toadette's notebook though, 3 is my lucky number..._

_ TEC: 4444. The number 4 signifies death in some cultures, so that number four times is... not a good sign._

_ Goombella: The way the numbers were I was a bit annoyed. Why not just put it in order? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Why make someone have no number, and someone else have something in the millions?_

_Bobbery: Heh, these numbers have to have some significance. Admittedly, my personal thoughts go out towards Koops. he was the only one to actually mention it..._

Toadette spoke up for the first time after Yoshi began writing in his own notebook. "Um... If you don't mind me asking-" She shied away from the attention that got her and coughed. "May I have my bag? I'm a bit thirsty." She pointed to the pile of bags beside Timpani and the host let out a soft, almost taunting smile.

"You will after your first challenge... or someone else might." That... got everyone a bit nervous, and Tippi held three fingers up. "But first, you must split into three groups. The first group is a loner, who "Knows everyone the most." Everyone waited for her to continue... but the host just gestured them to pick someone. "You can't expect me to give you every last piece of information at once." She put her hands on her hips. "Pick the loner and we'll go to the next group."

Goombella jumped up and down. "I think I do! I mean me and Mario were the two who met everyone on our journey." She glanced at everyone, and Toadette spoke up once again.

"You didn't meet me though." The goomba lightly glared at the girl.

Koops frowned softly, looking the florist over for a bit. "Yeah, we didn't meet any female toads on our journey that looked like her..."

"MAMA MIA!" Mario lept into the air in shock, pointing a finger at the her. "You're the one who taught me about my hammers and shoes!" Toadette smiled softly and nodded... causing the others to look just plain confused. "Well that settles it. I'm the only one who met Toadette, and Toadette here has only met me." Before anyone could say anything, he turned to Tippi. "I know everyone best."

Tippi nodded. "All right then." The aide who had played Flurrie's introduction grabbed Mario by the wrist and led him off to another area. She turned back to the group at large though. "And now for you guys, you have two groups to split into. 3 people who talk too much, and 6 who have a shoddy memory."

Goombella paused for a moment, before seeing everyone staring at her right after the first question. "... What?"

"You're going into the talk to much group." Eva laughed under her breath. "After all, your entire aid to Mario was blabbing about enemies' secrets."

"Hey! At least Mario WANTED me to come with him, you on the other hand would've just been another side character if he hadn't gone through the trouble."

Flurrie stepped between the two, pushing them apart. "I think you two need some time apart. With that said, I'm going to join Eva in the Shoddy Memory group.'

Bobbery was still writing in his notebook as he added his two cents. "Talks too much. After all, I've caused many a sailor to fall asleep telling my tales."

"So... One more person for that group?" Vivian looked around, before seeing the pink capped toad. "How about Toadette? If she taught Mario how to use his weapons, maybe she's good at talking?"

With that, said toad flushed pink and ran her hands over her braid. "T... That's nothing, it was a part-time job. I'm only a florist after all."

"Even better." Vivian nods at that, softly smiling and putting a hand on her back. "You probably have to tell people about those flowers often."

Yoshi grins and looks to Toadette. "Yeah! I think you'll do great. Besides, you probably don't have a *Censor* memory if you remembered talking to mario what, 4 times?"

"Yoshi, language." The host tapped her fingers against her arm, before checking her watch. "Twenty seconds."

"So Toadette it is?" Everyone but her nodded in agreement, and she gulped, waiting for Tippi's explaination.

"All right. This challenge is called **Baggage Claim**"The host gestured to everyone's bags, the labels on the side plain as day. "Mario is going to use a few items from your bags to try to identify who has what." Tippi crossed her arms. "Your challenge is to help him. For every correct bag, you get 2000 coins, meaning this game is worth 20000." Everyone let out a quiet murmur of excitement at that as she continued. "You all are going to be telling the three who talk to much what is in your bags- but keep in mind: Mario's only going to be getting things that probably won't be too clear at first glance who it belongs to. So for example, there's not going to be any of your normal outfits, or pictures of you or your loved ones. There may be folded papers but Mario won't be told to open them, and you can't tell him that."

"Hoo boy, this is going to be tough. There's nine of us for those three to talk about." Koops rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Bobbery grinned.

"Nonsense my good koopa. If we take our time we can-"

"Sadly, you won't have much time to do it." Tippi smiled a bit gesturing at the three chosen. "For they have ONE breath to tell Mario everything. We will keep an ear out on your microphones and say if something stops. And? If you do use more than one breath, a penalty of 1000 coins will be taken from your winnings."

Yoshi let out a quiet cuss. The rest of the group eyed the three and Tippi quickly looked at her watch.

"Mario is currently being told his role as well by my aide. You have ten minutes to get things together. Starting? Now."

Immediately everyone started talking about their belongings, easily confusing the chosen talkers who tried to take everything in, until Goombella let out a loud whistle. Everyone abruptly came to a stop a minute in and stared at her.

"We're not going to be able to remember our OWN belongings with that, let alone everyone. How about this, we split into 3 groups again. Two memory, one talker. The talker has less people to talk about, and more time to make use of their breath. Maybe we even should move apart from one another too to make it even easier?"

Flurrie spoke up, lightly grabbing Yoshi and Goombella at that time, "That sounds perfect."

"Come on Eva, Bobbery." Vivian gestured for the two of them to follow her and wandered away.

"Koops, Toadette, I guess that means you're with me?" TEC was quiet, tilting his head at the two of them as they started to converse.

"They're going to be telling you about what they've got in their bags. Your job is to identify, from what they say, which items here belong to which person." The aid had led Mario to a few containers, each holding a few items inside. Mario could easily see his own items and understood what the boomboxer was saying. It... was a bit difficult. At first glance, some of the boxes had very similar things. Jewelry, letters, sports drinks, papers. If his companions didn't tell him the right things, or were too vague? He could easily make a mistake. "Each bag you get right gives two thousand coins, but there's a catch that the others don't know."

The boomboxer held up two fingers to Mario, the plumber quirking an eyebrow in curiosity. "You have two chances to earn an exemption in this challenge. An exemption means you have immunity from the execution at the end of the episode."

That... caught the hero's interest, causing to lean forward. "So what're the two chances?"

The boomboxer gestured at all the boxes. "First one, the easier one but more costly. Don't even put one box with one bag. That costs the pot 20,000 coins. The other one is a bit easier, but it still costs money." He points where the others were communicating. "The talkers only have one breath each. It'll only cost three-thousand coins, but you _must_ have each of them speak after their breath is out. If one of them doesn't speak, your only option's to have everyone be bagless for the first episode... Which could be anywhere from a couple of hours, to a couple of days."

The red-wearing plumber slowly turned to the bags, a hand against his chin as he thought over the offer...

**Commercials Start.**

* * *

_New fanfic, new start! Also remind me never to use the site for spell-checking, even when people were speaking it called out passive voice and gave me a headache. Hope you all enjoy this, I'm having a lot of fun writing this so far._

_I'm well aware there's like... twenty people writing these kinds of things, but I love The Mole, love Mario, and love their fics! Soooo yeah, I wrote this._


	2. 1-2 Bagged and Tagged

While Mario mulled over his decision, the rest of the group started on their quick task, starting to converse in their groups.

"All right, first things first." Goombella looked between her two makeshift partners. "Gonzales Jr?"

"Yoshi." The blue fighter quickly spoke over her. "With two Gonzales's in this game to me, I'm going to get confused. Stick to my first name for now at least, until Mario gets executed."

Flurrie eyed the Yoshi carefully as Goombella rolled her eyes. "Fine. Yoshi. What was in your bag."

"I'm not too sure what they'd take. I mean I'm one of the only ones who wears pants, so those're out. My champ belt is probably out as well..." The fighter scratched his head carefully.

"You must have something in there that'd be chosen. " Flurrie placed her hands on her hips. "I mean even I have a few things, and all I wear is my necklace."

The younger one stuck his tongue out at her before turning back to Goombella. "I really don't know. Probably a sports drink and some of these." The fighter grabbed his wrist, snapping the band against it for a quick moment. "Maybe they'd grab the few badges I brought with me, but honestly I don't know what else."

Flurrie let out a huff and turned to Goombella. "Mario would likely know when he sees my belongings." She turned around at that and turned away.

"What are you-"

"My portion of this game is done, Goombella. I'm going to go see about getting refreshments."

The goomba let out a quiet groan as she watched the actress leave in a flourish, trying to figure out what could be from her own bag.

...

Toadette sipped the soda grabbed from a vending machine in the station and looked at the two a bit nervously. "S... so."

TEC looked between the two, and Koops seemed to simply be twiddling his thumbs. "Joy, I'm with a timid female and a timid male." The robot pointed at Koops. "I'll lead this little group for now. Koops, what're some things that you had in your bag. Doesn't even have to be the things that would be chosen."

"Oh. I have a few bags of Koopa Tea... Some drinks, some bandages, some hoodies..." Toadette nodded, picking a straw and placing it her drink to continue listening and watching the two. "Oh! And some letters from Koopie Koo and Dad."

_Toadette: I may not be some bigshot spy or political person, but I can get a bit of a feel for people or trying to make things up. Something about what Koops said didn't seem to add up to me._

Toadette's brow furrowed for a second. That... well other than specifically Koopa Tea and hoodies was similar to her own bag. She turned to TEC without removing her mouth from her straw. "For me, everything I own has a 0 emblazoned on it somewhere- even myself." The robot quickly moved his shirt, showing a 0 on his left shoulder. "As the last name I gave myself, Naught, means nothing. Well, all I own except for this new journal." Looking at the blue book in his hands, he quickly grabbed a pen and sketched a 0 onto the corner. "There."

It was quick, but it seemed like Toadette had some idea as to what she was going to say. With a quiet breath out, she tossed the soda can into the trash with a quiet clatter.

The two with feet began pacing back and forth as the siren slowly floated in front of them. "Hm..."

"What exactly could they have chosen?" Bobbery let out a quiet oath, glaring at the bags. "Most of what I have tend to be maps after all, and even then what else are pictures of..."

Vivian sighed, slowly putting her hat over her eyes as she frowned. "I can't think about just what I brought with me... I guess this really is for people with poor memories."

"Giving up already are we?" The thief crossed her arms in front of her, before bouncing onto a bench. "Badges. That's quiet literally all I brought."

Vivian pulled her hat back up. "That's it? Why didn't you bring anything else?"

"Because, Vivian. For one thing, I'm a Mowz. I barely wear clothing usually. Second, I'm not one for shiny things unless they are badges." Eva was holding up fingers with each of them. "Food we are provided so that was out as well, same for first aid. The only person I would have pictures of are you all and my brother, but I feel comfortable enough alone. I do it often enough. Besides, I always travel light. Makes it easier to sneak away like I was never there."

Bobbery nodded for a moment, turning to Vivian. "Well it appears that's easy, and I can spend more time on yours and my own."

Vivian put a hand to her mouth, letting out a few musical nhums. "Jewels. I know I'm a jewler and all, but I think with Flurrie, Ms Mowz if they thought they could trick someone, Toadette, and even Mario himself, that's enough people who would have jewels in their bags. What else..."

"Take your time, we have a minute."

"We'd have more if you didn't take so long rattling off things you DIDN'T have!" Bobbery huffed, glaring at the thief for a few moments.

She kept thinking, floating around. "No... No... That's personal, if he opened that it'd be way too obvious..." Vivian blinked. "Oh! I know what e-"

"Everyone, be quiet now. You cannot speak or the penalty will come."

Bobbery's mustached face twisted into a frown, but he could see a few others glaring at differnt people. It seems like more sabotogue was at work than just in his own team...

Mario was led back to the group... And a quick once over at the group showed a strong feeling that this was going to be harder than he originally thought... Tippi and the assistant carried the boxes back towards the bag and turned to the group. "All right." Tippi shooed the boomboxer away and he darted to the north. "You all know the rules. Mario, you're going to be able to take a bit of time after each person to sort the bags."

It was quite blatant the annoyance in everyone's face at hearing that. More time for this game... More options for the Mole to somehow sabotague the pot. The 6 people chosen to have poor memories were ushered off to the side, leaving the three with

"First up... Toadette."

The toad approached, grabbing another soda she had bought and pointing at one of the bags, then at herself. Inside was a sports drink, some letters, bandages,

"... Are you saying that's your bag?" She nodded with a grin, putting a hand to her chin. "... That's... kind of smart. Not even using your breath before finding your bag." Toadette gave a small bow while the host visibly fumed.

Now to begin her actual turn: Toadette hummed quietly before taking a breath to start. "Look for Zeroes and you'll find TEC's stuff, and Koops has letters, bandages, hoodies, tea but thinking on it that stuff would reveal who he is. Our bags're similar." Taking a deep breath, Toadette finished with a quiet, smug smirk

Tippi glared at Toadette and tapped her headset. "I need a ruling..."

Toadette saw Mario glare her way and the pink haired toad drank from her soda again. "I'm guessing it's because you gestured?" She shrugged. "... Why'd you think that was a good idea?" Another shrug. "Okay, if we lose coins, I'm going to find it-"

"Okay, so there's going to be a compromise." Tippi sighed. "While it wasn't explicitly stated that you could only use verbal communication, it also wasn't totally out of the question." Tapping her finger against her arm, the host bit her lip. "Since you guys didn't know that, the _funder_ thinks that Toadette should be rewarded for her creativity"

"REA- meep." The toad covered her mouth, and Tippi shook her head.

"You can be happy about it, it won't be a penalty. But... From now on though- any signs of intentional nonverbal communication meant to help Mario will be a 1500 coin penalty. Worse than an additional verbal one."

Toadette immediately paled at the idea and glanced at Mario, gulping and shooting him a thumbs up. Mario frowned softly as Goombella scoffed.

_Goombella: You know she EASILY could've cost us a thousand coins, and now she's made a WORSE penalty come forth? It's like she's making others sabotogue for her._

_Toadette: You think I expected that they'd make a stronger penalty from doing something like that? If we can't speak, we gesture. All creatures do that though!_

Mario sighed a bit, putting a hand to his head and bit his lip, glancing back at Toadette. "Which one was it again?"

Her hand twitched, but the toad went back to sipping her soda, screwing her eyes shut.

_Mario: Well Toadette didn't even respond to me... Admittedly I thought I could've gotten the "Slip up and talk" just from people not paying attention. But..._

The plumber moved to the bags. "Guess I've got to do what I've got to do."

Grabbing one bag, his own, Mario quickly carried it over to a box with a few stars inside and some mushrooms, placing it there. Moving on to Toadette's bag, he placed it under the box that she had pointed out to him...

Glancing down the row though it looked like there was another box si- Oh... It hit him and he moved over to Koops's bag, quickly darting it over to the box with the same stuff inside. "That's why she had to point it out to me."

Glancing along the row... He quickly moved to a box with a few photos and some devices, looking closely at them... and finding the 0 he was looking for. "TEC could've said **something **about the electronics..."

"I didn't expect they'd pi-" TEC frowned softly as Boomboxer let out a loud Penalty Buzzer noise.

"That's 1000 coins lost TEC. Don't reply or it'll be 2000."

The Boomboxer handed Mario a note, and his sighed as he read it. _Doesn't count unless it's the 3 "Talkers"._

Mario crossed his arms, tapping his foot roughly and turning to Bobbery and Goombella. "Okay, I'm going to listen to both of you, just in case."

"Are you some kind of idiot? You have three chances to choose from and you're going to waste one because you want to be CAREFUL?!" Goombella glared at Mario, before realizing what she'd just done... "Okay, I don't care about the penalty-" She talked straight through boomboxer's buzzer as Tippi marked the second penalty. "Look for a red pen for me, Flurrie says "You'll know when you see it", and Yoshi's got badges and sports stuff."

_TEC: First she glares at me for slipping up when a conversation was pointed at me, then she snaps at Mario and got a penalty right then and there. That is the definition of a hypocrite._

Mario ticked off one, and the microphones were set off by a moderately loud sound, eyes immediately turning towards the source of it- Toadette. She covered her mouth and blushed a little bit, mouthing out "Excuse me" but other than that remaining silent. Turning to Bobbery, Mario quietly looked at him and crossed his arms. "I have maps, Eva says that all she brought were badges, and Vivian could only say "Jewels" due to Eva's ranting."

"I did no-"

"BUZZER NOISES" Boomboxer didn't even bother playing it now, crossing his arms himself as he smirked.

Everyone was outwardly annoyed at the current state of affairs, three penalties already and Mario isn't even halfway done. But one person was holding back laughter at how easily this group lost money.

"All right..." Looking at the six bags, Mario found Bobbery's and Ms. Mowz's bags well enough. Though he had to flip through another box of badges to find something he remembered from Glitzville before making sure. There wasn't actually anything sports related in the box... So he hoped that placing Yoshi there and placing Eva's bag with the other would work.

That left Goombella, Vivian, and Flurrie... Goombella's red pen was easy to find as well, but the next two boxes... One had jewels and makeup... the other had jewels and makeup as well. He wasn't a jewler nor did he really know how makeup worked, so he simply placed the final two bags in a random position, turning to Tippi.

"Finished."

"And now for the results... The boxes and bags will be given to their "Owners"."

Mario quickly placed his own box and bag below his own feet, crossing his arms. "Obviously I got my own bag correct.

**-3000 + 2000 = -1000.**

Boomboxer carried the three "Talkers" their bags and all of them grinned at seeing their own names on them.

**-1000+ 6000= 5000.**

Vivian and Flurrie were next... And the two of them frowned, glaring at mario as they both pulled the makeup from their bags.

"Mario, I know you aren't one for fashion, but I don't believe 'Fire red' is an appropriate color for me."

"And these Sapphires are gorgeous, but blue is more Flurrie's color after all."

The hero frowned a bit, the two girls both annoyed at having the wrong bags, but he smiled. "L-least I got all the other-"

"Not quite." Yoshi pulled a red mask from 'his' bag. "This look familiar."

"That. Is mine." Eva growled quietly, tossing 'her' bag down. "I do not even have one of my precious badges! I have cheap trash ones, and horrid smelling athletic gear."

"W-what? But I found a Glitzville badge!"

Koops rubbed his nose gently and made an awkward noise. "We... Met Eva in Glitzville one before You probably should've looked for badges found in Boggly woods."

**5000+0=5000.**

Nervously, Mario looked at the others. Koops was softly smiling, reading a letter, TEC was already tinkering with some parts.

**5000+4000= 9000.**

"Congratulations everyone, you have correctly identified 6 out of 10 bags, resulting in 9000 coins after the speaking penalties."

Yoshi whistled quietly. "Not too shabby I'll say."

"Could be better but we won about half what we could've." Bobbery smiled gently as he thought about what that money could to to his ship

"However..."

Vivian groaned. "Why'd I expect that..."

"You should know." Flurrie crossed her arms for a quick moment before turning to Tippi. "As Mario was turning to you, I saw Vivian shaking her head in a panic since he had gotten our belongings incorrect... Which I assume..."

"The funder deemed "A purposeful act of nonverbal communication.""

"Wait, why are you mentioning the funder?"

Tippi smiled softly, putting her hands together in front of her chest. "Well simple. As a matter of fairness, any rulings will be placed by either the Producer, or the Funder. The Producer will likely be biased in favor of the Mole, and the Funder is biased in favor of the contestants since she wishes to give away the larges sum possible. So... The Funder will determine if something is worth a penalty after talking with the producer. That way, everything if fair for you all. Understand?"

"Does the funder-"

Before Tippi could respond, Boomboxer spoke up." Nope! Only the Mole 'n the producah know who the Mole is."

"Boomboxer, shush. You're an aide."

**9000-1500= 7500**

**Challenge status: Loss. 37.5% earnings.**

**Total pot: 7500 / 20,000**

Not even a THIRD of what they could have gotten... it seemed like quite a few people were upset by that. And by upset, they had to censor Yoshi's mouth as he cussed up a storm.

"But... That's not all." Tippi turned to Mario. "Mario had two chances this challenge to win an exemption."

"TWO!?" Bobbery and Koops both were fuming at the thought of that, eyeing Mario with jealousy.

"How in the name of the sea does he get two chances for one?"

"Isn't that completely unfair?!"

"Well he didn't get either." The quick burst of anger dissipated as the two humphed quietly, pulling out their notebooks. "He either had to get all of the Talkers to speak a second time... Where the "Talks too much" comes to play." Goombella blushed with nerves as a few people glared her way. "And the second? To completely toss out EVERY bag and box, not even answering one for itself. At the cost of his own bag and this first challenge entirely. But obviously he failed on them both."

Tippi turned and gestured for them to follow her. "Carry your bags, we're going to show you your new rooms for the next few days. All the time to get acquainted to your new belongings."

_Mario: We'd have won that challenge if we didn't have the penalties... I only caused one of them though._

_Eva: BOBBERY. That moronic old fart blames me for 'ranting' when I basically told him stuff that would fit, what wouldn't be in my box._

_Vivian: I didn't quite spend much time... But Mario didn't even have to open the makeup to realize that shades of blue fit Flurrie and reds and oranges fit me. That... was a bit odd of him._

_Yoshi: Seriously? These badges cost over hundreds coins each. Gonzales should've known I'd never be able to afford these! Besides, half of these [Censor] badges aren't helpful in fights!_

_Goombella: I guess I jumped at Mario's neck a bit to easily, but honestly that plan was dumb. And what kind of explanation is "You'll know it when you'll see it"? Mario's got about as much knowledge of makeup as I do!_

_Bobbery: "I don't care about the penalty"? Yes it was one thousand coins compared to a possible six lost... But Goombella only got her own bag as well. All together she earned 1000 coins, and LOST us more than she had gained._

_Koops: I... don't really know what to say about the first challenge. After all, I was with TEC and Toadette, and the only thing suspicious they did was the creating a new penalty, which didn't get used, and responding to Mario asking something... I've really got no suspects._

_Toadette: I think I'm going to need an alliance. A coalition? I think I've heard Bobbery and Koops mentioning that... To see something from all parts of the challenges._

_TEC: I've got a suspect, but I also have someone who I feel is absolutely cleared. Let's... hope that it doesn't bite me in my metallic rear soon enough._


	3. 1-3 Doubt

**Forgive me while I remove the dust off of this story. Basically the past year wasn't... good. Especially because I lost most of my prepwork for the story. ANYWAY.**

**I gotta get back into the swing of things with writing too. Sorry.  
**

* * *

Tippi quickly lead the group to the town square, sending them off to their own devices as they quickly scattered around to speak with others. TEC was the first one to pull someone aside, gripping the pink toad by the wrist and tugging her along towards a corner, kneeling down up to her and quickly speaking.

"I don't think you are the Mole, at least at this moment. For now why don't we, as the outsiders of that group, make a little alliance?"

Toadette glanced up, quirking a brow and smiling before pulling her soda right back to her lips with a loud slurp on the straw. "Hm... Sure. Better to have at least one other set of eyes going around, cause those two-" She pointed towards the bomb and koopa currently mumbling to one another on the other side of the town square. "Aren't the only ones who watched other seasons."

The android smiled softly, moving to sit down beside her and tilted his head. "Well that would be an interesting place to start. I'll tell you what I observed during the latest mission, and you tell me a little bit about the other games?"

Toadette laughed for a moment. "Well the first thing- Don't trust people on how they look immediately, a lot of people can have hidden talents or thing that we don't know about. _Especially_ since the others know one another more than we do. For the first quiz- we're going to need to learn a little bit about the others. I know one person who I don't think'll be able to keep things quiet. Second, best thing to do in a coalition..."

* * *

Mario stared at the group at large, looking around and quietly tapping his pen against the page, doodles forming beside the sentences the paper as he thought.

**Mario: All I can really trust is what I see with my own two eyes, hear with my own two ears, but sometimes things'll happen in two- or MORE- groups... There's no one I can trust beyond a shadow of a doubt though. Someone could just lie to me about what had happened and throw me off... Everyone here wants the coins in the end, and it's not just the Mole that will sabotage us. After the FIRST mission, I can already see cracks in our group forming, only the stars know how it's going to end.**

Mario tapped his pen on the ground, looking up and eyeing the groups already forming, biting his lip before quickly working on writing some more information down in his notebook.

* * *

Vivian quietly spoke with one of the aides, before floating over to "Flurrie"'s bag and pulling out some pills, placing one to her lips and using a water from "Her" bag to take it.

**Vivian: I don't trust Bobbery or Ms M- Eva, honestly. I had to pair up with the two of them for the first challenge... We spent so long travelling with one another, you'd think that we'd know each other well enough anyways.**

Flurrie quietly gripped Vivian's hand and tugged her close, whispering in the siren's ear and the Siren nodded, looking at the others and whispering right on back.

* * *

Yoshi tapped his finger against his arm, eyeing the others and rolling his eyes as he snacked on a bag of chips from "His" bag, shaking his head and grumbling. "Iunno why anyone here's already pairing off." Yoshi turned to the camera beside him. "And sorry I'm not savin' this for the "Talking head" segments ya do, but I wanna grumble now. It's the first mission, second's coming up. Ya don't know anythin' about anyone yet other than what we've talked aout before." Yoshi shook his head, standing and wandering to the castle as they began to meet up with Tippi in the main hall, having been lead there by the Boomboxer. Tippi was quietly eating a rather.. fancy looking, if the plating was anything to go by, seared scallop and steak tenderloin dinner. Tippi blinked as the group came in, smiling warmly as the woman on the other side of the table waved.

"Peach!"

TEC froze, eyes wide as he stared at Peach, turning his head and his cheeks flushing as Mario darted forward, face beaming. Toadette elbowed TEC gently, smiling up at him as he shushed her.

"You all know Peach as the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, but to start out our competition, I thought you might as well know her as someone else. The other half to make this game fair."

The princess nodded, before standing and ushering everyone to their seats, placing menus down herself as she beamed.

"Yep, I'm the one who's paying for your prize money, and also the one who wishes to make things fair for all of you as well." The camera honed in on one of the menus, as Vivian flipped it over, gasping. "What's-"

The group all flipped their menus over as well, staring at the message that seemed to have been left by the Mole and reading it.

"... Well. Let's not focus on something so serious~" Peach clapped her hands, quickly summoning a group of ten toads, each with a domed dish over their heads. "Everyone pick one thing from the menu, admittedly I only have one of each prepared..."

The group all looked over, but Toadette spoke up first, "Tilapia?" She glanced to the toad who placed it down and raised a hand. "I didn't ask for it yet, I was wondering what it was."

"Sorry, Orders are orders. If you say it, we pass it out."

TEC quickly grabbed the menu, looking back and forth before looking up. "Meatloaf." The plate was placed down and the others quickly spoke up, trying to get their order quick.

"I would like the Filet Mignon." Flurrie happily cut into the dish as it was placed down ahead of her.

Vivian quickly ordered the Sashimi, Bobbery the Clam Chowder, Mario the Crudo, Eva took the steak tartare, and Yoshi grabbed the burger.

Koops and Goombella blinked, staring at how the only two left were rather... mundane. Fried Chicken and a tuna sandwich. Koops opened his mouth to ask for the sandwich, but his stomach growled loudly, face heating up. Goombella glanced over to her friend, before speaking up "Sandwich"

"Wait-" Koops frowned, staring at the full plate of fried chicken and looking back at Goombella, but she smiled.

"What, you expect I'd be able to eat that without arms?" Goombella bit into her sandwich and Koops quietly took a bite of his own meal, staring at goombella.

**Koops: ****I... Don't know why, but Goombella jumping at the tuna sandwich was kinda weird in the end, I mean out of everyone she seems like the type who wouldn't jump at that choice. Or be nice enough to give someone the bigger plate.**

Once all of the meals passed out, Peach continued what she was going to say. "I hope all of you enjoy your trip through the Mushroom Kingdom! I know that when you went to save me. Again." The princess eyed Mario for a moment, before turning back to the group. "It was in Rogueport's area, but I do wish to show all of my kingdom to as many of you as possible. Though... Obviously, some of you will have to pass up."

Vivian's face went a paler lavender. "D-does that mean."

"What?" Peach frowned, before Tippi let a low chuckle out.

"No you're not going to have your first elimination already. We have a few things in store. But for now, have a nice evening. You might want to get to bed as soon as you can." Tippi quickly tossed keys to the group, a small smile on her face as each pair of roomates glanced at one another. "You're going to need it."


	4. 1-4 Surf VS Turf

**I edited the clue from last chapter to be a little bit more elaborate and neater. Especially since crudo turned out to be a descriptor, not a dish.**

Most of the players made their way to their divided up rooms, some going to bed early, some staying up, and others leaving themselves til later, goofing around the palace and meeting up with each other. But eventually, everyone had to go to sleep at some point...

Though their rest was broken by a rapid rapping on their door, and an officiate from the show unlocked their doors.

* * *

Vivian jolted up from her slumber, for a moment yelping in shock at the bob-omb painting overhead, scrambling off of it and grabbing her hat off her side-table with a heavy yawn, rubbing her eyes as the sound continued.

"Ladies, please report to the town square immediately. You may get dressed in something other than pajamas if you wish... However Madame Flurrie-"

"Yes yes, I know." The wind spirit floated off of her own bed, her necklace in place around her neck immediately as she clicked on the light the duo was given, a soft yawn escaping her as she turned to the door. "Immediately does mean immediately, not 'when you are finished putting on your normal three hours worth of makeup.'" Grabbing a cloth from Vivian's bag and wiping off the mud mask she had on her face, she turned to the vanity with her new cosmetics. "Do not worry darlings, I don't have most of my supplies in my bag as of right now. Don't worry your little head."

"I'm sorry about that..." Vivian quietly grabbed Flurrie's bag, picking a few cosmetics of her own, and putting a few bits of it on herself. "If I could give you your makeup back, Flurrie, I could."

"It's not your problem, Vivian, 'twas my own fault. I forgot that it was Luigi who had knowledge of makeup out of the two of them from his few times disguising as the princess." She waves her hand, dismissing Vivian's worries with a soft laugh. "Besides, our complexions are both shades of purple, it works well enough."

Vivian paused at Flurries words, turning to her, before going back and reaching for the journal she left underneath her pillow. "Right..."

* * *

Opening the door, the aide had to duck as one of the women threw a pillow, almost hitting the glass full of cheep cheeps beside it. "Hey! You've got to do something, so wake up girls, or I'm going to grab that boomboxer to bring that penalty buzzer again."

Eva rolled her eyes and let a quiet laugh, Goombella's messy hair and scowl in the corner of her eye. "Tell Tippi not to fret, I will bring Goombella out soon enough." The aide rushed out before another projectile was flung his way, and tugging her helmet on she stormed her way out of the room, grumbling something about how this was worse than her all nighters in college.

"Come out quick, don't want us to lose any more money."

"I'll be out soon..." The moment the door clicked shut, Eva's smile turned slick, tugging a duo of journals out from under her covers and clicking the pen she had been given with a quiet laugh. "Might not be my kind of treasure, but who knows what we might need during this game..." She quickly opened the orange notebook, jotting what was on the other pages into the green one with a lsly smirk.

* * *

Yoshi stretched, a small smirk playing across his face as he poked Koops on the cheek. "Hey. Hey. Mayor-boy. Wake up." He kept poking the other, the aide's foot taping roughly on the floor and staring at the watch on his wrist.

"Mmm... koopie Koo, five more minutes." Koops turned over in his seat and Yoshi chuckled, standing up on the other's bed with a wide grin.

"MAYOR MAYOR THERE'S AN EARTHQUAKE." Yoshi started to bounce rapidly on the other's bed, sending Koops flying up and the older of the two latching onto one of the paintings, causing it to tilt over and the koopas inside visibly sliding from the shift of the magical painting.

"YOSHI WHAT THE- Oh hey there mister." Koops stared at the man by the door, and watched him jab his finger back, before storming out. Koops turned towards the fighter and frowned. "What's going on?"

Yoshi tossed the other his hoodie, grabbing one of Eva's masks to wear as an ascot with a chuckle, flicking a badge into the air like a coin. "My guess is the pot is about to get bigger. Hopefully. We got a mission."

"At midnight?" Yoshi nodded, which followed with Koops falling down from the painting with an audible groan. "Why couldn't it be tomorrow afternoon..."

* * *

The moment the rapping sounded, Mario jolted up, groaning as the toad-shaped clock beside him showed it was midnight, hoppingoff of his own bed. "Bobbery?"

"I'm up, I'm up. You would think they would give us more warning then immediately... But then again." The bob-omb yawned, stretching and spinning his wheel-fuse for a moment as he pulled his notebook out of his bag. "There is the reason for such a late mission, is my guess lad."

Mario rustled through his bag, tossing a few things out of it onto his bed and pulling a warmer undershirt on, turning to him. "You think we're having a mission?"

"Lad, it's midnight, and the menu said something about getting rest. I'm almost sure we're going to be exhausted once we finish with whatever they have in store."

Mario shook his head, jotting something down in his notebook before shoving it into his bag and turning to Bobbery. "We going?"

"In a moment, I want to find my journal just in case."

"Doubt you'll be able to write anything in it until after Bobbery." Mario waved his hand and slipped out of the room, and the bob-omb decided to follow right after.

* * *

the mole hanging overhead of the remaining two was daunting, but after a brief rest, the toad and android woke up surprisingly easily at the wake up call.

TEC flicked through his notebook, a list already on the page with a circle around a few people as he looked towards his roomate. "So, before we head out... any leads after you slept on it?" his pen hovered over Toadette's name, somewhere in the middle of the list as he filled it in.

Toadette stared at her own notebook, flicking through it as she shook her head. "Not really, no. I know some people I want to look at, and I'm so happy that Goombella let all of that information slip to me once I started asking her about that journey." Toadette let a soft laugh out, covering her mouth with her hand. "We would've been at a huge disadvantage without knowing the names and dates."

Tec laughed as well, holding his hand out for a high five. "Outsider Coallition is a go?"

Her hand met his with a matching grin. "Go team~"

* * *

The players all gathered in the town square, with Tippi standing there with a cup of coffee steaming in her hands. "Good, you all arrived promptly. No more penalties it seems..." Some glares were shot through the group. "Now then, this mission is called "Surf or Turf.", which should sound familiar for those of you who looked closely at your menus last night." Tippi pulled out a small notebook, flicking through it and pointing at the group. "Mario, Vivian, Goombella, Toadette, Bobbery, you all chose fish dishes last night during dinner. You five will be the Surf team. Flurrie, Yoshi, Koops, TEC, Ms. Mowz, you five had dishes that came from land animals, so you will be the Turf team."

**_TEC: So my guess was right, it was way too obvious what with only one of each that we were going to be divided according to what we had._**

The ten slowly split up into their two groups, and their host continued.

"The Turf players will be going down south with me, where I will tell you your task first. The Surf players will head to the west and wait beside the docks for me to return."

The groups split off from one another, and Tippi spoke as she lead the others towards their task. "You five will be tasked with collecting ten oink-oinks of different colors by the time I return from you in an hour. There is a timer on the building-" She pointed, a digital clock set for 60 minutes set on top of the rainbow beneath the screw. "-however it is not so easy. As you spin the dial different oink-oinks will come into the pen over there, and you can only collect them one at a time. And there are 10 colors of oink-oinks set to come out of the machine, so as time goes on, it will become more and more difficult for you to collect the appropriate colors." Tippi tapped a slot on the side. "You also must earn coins to use this machine, by playing in the casino over yonder." She points towards a set of warp pipes not too far away.

Yoshi raised his hand. "So how does the coins work, we betting our winnings?"

Tippi smiled. "Precisely. You will start with 20,000 coins as your possible earnings, which is also the maximum amount of coins for this challenge. Each win in the casino games counts as 1000 coins earned. Each loss however is 1000 coins. Using the oink-oink machine however, costs 2000 coins per spin."

A soft whistle was heard, and Eva quickly stared at it, turning. "We will be earning chips I believe if we are talking casinos and such." A curt nod was her only response.

"Now then, pick someone whose good with their head, someone whose good with their hands, and a trio who can handle slippery situations."

Yoshi quickly latched onto the good-with-their-hands, flexing his arms, and Koops was the one assigned to use his head, while the others were left as the slippery situations.

"All right, Yoshi will be doing the hammer game, Koops the jumping game, and you three will be the ones who are collecting them. Gamblers, your rules will be on signs in your respective games, and the chips you are using to gamble are here-" She handed 6 chips to Eva and Flurrie, and seven to TEC with a quick clap of her hands.

"Your competition begins now."

* * *

It didn't take long for Tippi to head to the Surf group after the others began their competition, clapping quietly and pointing at a wall of ten question marks.

"Before I say anything, I want you guys to decide who should wet their feet. You must have at least one person, and at least one person must NOT wet their feet." Tippi smiled as the quintet rapidly bustled, Vivian being drowned out by the louder Goombella.

"Wetting your feet means the easy task, right? I think Vivian should definitely be one of them."

"Excuse me-"

"Why though?" Bobbery stared at Goombella.

Goombella rolled her eyes. "This is still the first episode too, it shouldn't be THAT hard either way, but the way she's talking makes me think that we're going to want some people on both."

"Maybe you should get your feet wet too." Mario scratched his head gently, turning towards Toadette, who was fiddling with her pigtail and staring at the others. "What do you think?"

"... I want to be on the not-wet side. You mind if I pick for myself since I didn't actually for the other one?" There was no complaints, and eventually Bobbery decided to join Vivian in her portion of the challenge.

"All right, you guys have a rather... simple task. Solve those puzzles."

Vivian turned to the wall, then back at Tippi. "Er... What puzzles?"

Tippi quietly turned her finger down towards the docks, the surprisingly deep depths murky as she smiled. "Down there. Some of you must get your feet wet to find them, and then those left over will have to be good with pictures. Down below are clams and inside those clams are pictures perfectly sized to place onto the wall over there, you will have to figure out what the pictures represent and write that down on the right side of the board before the hour passes. I will be timing you, starting-"

"Wait can't we talk stra-"

Cutting off Toadette, Tippi smiled. "Now."

Immediately at the beginning, Vivian turned towards the goomba angrily. "I'm based around fire magic and you expect me to swim?!"

"Sorry, how was I supposed to know it was literal. Besides it shouldn't be that hard to find the pictures. Get going." a quick bump of her head sent Vivian staggering back, and a loud yelp came with her crashing down into the water as well. Bobbery glared at her for a moment before jumping in after, followed quickly by Goombella laughing. "Oops. Well they're in the water, so now we wait."

_**Goombella: She was being aggressive when she could've been swimming, not my fault I had the wrong impression.**_

_**Bobbery: At least one of our talented swimmers was doing that task...**_

* * *

TEC and Flurrie watched Eva rushing around the pen, scrambling to catch the second pig darting around. The moment they saw the gold piglet pop out, Eva was after it like a light, and before they knew it she caught it, and was right after the second one as well with coins in her eyes.

"Ohoho" Flurried watched Eva spin with the pig, holding it up over her head as she dashed to the pen and returned, grabbing her last two tokens and popping them into the machine. "It seems like this isn't as difficult as they made it out to be."

"Keep in mind." TEC tapped the rainbow with a finger, watching as the machine worked it's magic. "We've only done twice, we don't know how rare the actual pigs are. And we don't know how difficult the casino games are as well."

"Mine's not too bad." Koops appeared out of nowhere, placing six tokens down on the makeshift table beside the machine they had. "I just hit blocks and hope for the best. Lost my first few because I got too greedy, but other I made more than my money back."

"Splendid!" Flurrie's smile was wide as she lifted the tokens, slipping them in and watching the silver pig rushing around the pen as it's bretheren joined with him., now we've broken even!"

"Not... exactly." Yoshi grabbed a trio of coins from the table before storming off back to his game. Koops quietly sighed, grabbing a few himself and darting back. TEC quietly tossed another group of chips into the machine, darting in after the new green oink-oink that had joined them.

_**Yoshi: So my task was to smash blocks and try to find chips inside, and this martial artist dude would reset the entire thing if I waited a few moments before starting. Knowing we had a time limit I wanted to get as many blocks smashed as possible... But I just kept LOSING. Over and over!**_

Down in the casino, Yoshi dipped into his game, glaring as he placed the chip down, looking around and smashing the first block he could see. Again. The Yoshi searched through the remains and found a single chip placing it right back to the aide, an elderly toad in a martial artist's gi.

"Patience young one, one must not rush into battle."

"Hey, that's what I do best." Another smashed brick, though this time no chips were found within. Yoshi quickly grumbled, putting his hammer over his shoulder and looking around. "There's gotta be something to these blocks though..." Placing the hammer down beside the toad, starting to look over the bricks on the ground, the martial artist sighing quietly.

Over in the other one, Koops was dawdling for a few seconds, staring up at the bricks above him and walking to the farthest one, reaching up and poking it for a moment, hearing a roar sound out as he laughed, sliding to the next and one the noise was good, breaking it, catching the two coins that he found inside with a grin, placing the coin down to the teacher grading on the counter, who pulled the coin back and pressed a button, and Koops got back to work with a small smile on his face.

"Oh, miss, sorry to bug you while you're grading miss."

**_Koops: I had to smash the blocks above me and find chips inside. The sign itself mentioned 'To the Mole, every sense is needed.' at the bottom, and when I saw the teacher I just knew I had to TEST the blocks and use my senses. The muffled noises signified which was which, so I kept winning. Heh._**

"It's no problem at all."

**2/10 oink-oinks. 15,000/20,000 coins. 50 minutes remaining.**

* * *

Vivian popped back up, gasping for air and struggling to the side, all the while clutching desperately onto a paper wrapped in plastic that she placed onto the side, which Mario quickly picked up, before grabbing her hand and helping her out of the water. "Vivian stay up here for a bit."

"But we need-" Bobbery hopped up out of the water, shaking himself off and handing a paper to Mario quietly, before pausing and staring at the shadow siren.

"Vivian, I'll be trying my best to do this myself. You don't need to worry too much." Bobbery gave her a slight smile. "They did say it's possible for only one person to work on the clams after all, just come down whenever you think you can and search through them, I'll get to work." Before she could say anything, Bobbery jumped into the water and she stared at it, sitting on the edge and watching him work.

**_Vivian: Two of us searching definitely was a better idea but I could barely swim, and the lack of sleep... I knew I couldn't help the others, but taking a break at Bobbery's request didn't seem too bad._**

"All right that's two of our pictures." The first picture was of what Mario recalled was one of the Nimbi sitting in a lakitu's cloud and holding a rod with a cheep cheep on the end, and another picture was of Mario holding onto a laser gun in his hand and aiming it. "... But we don't have any ideas of what these could be."

Goombella slapped the pictures onto the board and Toadette tapped her chalk against the answers. "Maybe if we get a few more we would be able to see a pattern start to come about."

"Maybe... Vivian-"

"On it." The siren reluctantly stood, nodding towards the others and pinching her nose, diving down into the water once more as the splashing of her struggled swimming sent some water towards the others.

Goombella grabbed her own chalk and jotted "Nimbi" and "Mario" onto the right side, before placing it back down in the tray. "What species we've got is the only thing I can immediately think of, so like... It's a start."

Toadette was just staring at the pictures, trying to make heads or tails of it.

Almost simultaneously once again, Vivian and Bobbery came up for air, though the former struggled to stay afloat with a sputter. "K-keep your clams open, Bobbery. That way we can make sure we're not checking the same ones."

"What's taking so long!?"

Vivian glared at Goombella. "You try searching in the dark for a needle in a hay stack."

The goomba shrugged as best as someone without shoulders could. "I would, but it's your challenge."

Bobbery grunted for a moment, diving back under, going towards the many MANY clams currently scattered on the bottom of the harbor. "

**2/10 found. 0/10 solved. 40 minutes left.**

* * *

Koops hopped back up through the pipe, carrying twenty chips in his hands as he came over, watching Flurrie rush around and try her best to tackle the red oink-oink. "GET BACK HERE."

"... So how long's she been chasing after that guy?"

"About a minute actually. we're doing pretty well with the oink-oinks themselves." TEC ran a hand through his hair, staring at the six Oink-oinks already all lined up, and then staring at Koops's chips as he placed them into their pile.

Yoshi came up, cussing and growling as he flung the hammer down beside him, storming over. "How am I supposed to win a game that's complete and utter luck?!"

"Got him! Oink-oink seven has been captured!" Flurrie's laugh sounded as she placed him into the box and floated over, TEC moving to take his turn next, staring at the two. "What's going on dearies?

Koops put a hand on Yoshi's head, trying to calm the other down, "They're not though. You probably have some clues in your room that tells you what you've got to do. He's having trouble with his hammer game."

"The only thing I haven't checked is the guy who just keeps telling me to be patient."

Flurrie put a hand on her chin, thinking for a moment. "... Maybe if you give him the chip, and then wait a while?" Flurrie tilted her head for a moment before turning, seeing another green oink-oink charging around the fenced-in area. "Here, I have been keeping some chips on my person in case we had ran out, but with Koops... somehow being able to always win his game..."

"Hey, it was easy."

_**Flurrie: Too easy in my opinion.**_

"We don't need it. Try it my way, sit there and watch the game for a few moments."

Koops nodded and turned to Yoshi. "She might be right, I mean my observer was who showed me to **test **the blocks, maybe yours is doing the same."

Eva quickly turned and shoo-ed Yoshi and Koops. "Get going, we've to hit the point where it's taking quite a lot of chips to find new oink-oinks."

Flurrie shook her head, and pushed the two along. "Yes, that last one took ten thousand coins to find get going dearies."

**7/10 Oink-oinks, 20,000/20,000 coins, 20 minutes remaining.**

* * *

Bobbery swam up fro the bottom, passing by a still resting Vivian with another paper, panting and barely able to speak as he handed the sixth paper to them. Joining the nimbi and Mario was a picture of keelhaul key, minus what appeared to be a moving van with whatever started it missing and the letter k, the ocean plus a light fixture minus some green plant, someone arguing about the price of a product- if the speech bubble was any indication-, a picture of a container of something similar to the picture of the nimbi.

Mario scratched his head, wiping out Goombella's repeated guesses for the answers and tapping them. "All right, we've been waiting too long now, we need something. These two are too similar though." Mario tapped the Nimbi and the container, looking close. "It's what looks to be some Jammin Jelly and a Nimbi fish-"

"OH GRAMBI THAT'S IT!" Goombella once again shoved Mario out of the way, Toadette grabbing a piece of chalk as well, both of them quickly scrambling as Mario fell onto his rear.

"Nimbi's are also known as Angels, so this one has to be Angelfish."

"And Mario's comment, that must be JELLYFish here, you can't really do much more than this otherwise it'd be too obvious." Toadette scribbled it down, before starring and jotting down "Starfish" on one of the blanks.

"Why did you-"

Goombella shook her head, "No Toadette's got a good idea, if we find one of the star spirits fishing, just place it there. Mario, think of ocean creatures. That's what the puzzle's answers are!"

"Did you say star spirits fishing?" Bobbery shook off the water, pulling a picture from his hat that showed Eldstar doing just that. "Like this?"

Mario grabbed it, putting it into place and looking at the puzzles. "Mama Mia, a few of these must be rebuses then! Keelhaul key, minus the letter K, so Eelhaul K-"

Toadette jumped at that, scribbling down "Eel" into the position "I don't know how you get it, but it's the only thing out of keelhaul key that even sounds like any kind of sea creature. So that's 4 that we think we've got out of these seven."

"That's missing the key, so eelhaul, so the man must be one of those hauling ones. Keelhaul key minus k-haul key equals eel." Mario nodded, running his finger along the one with the light fixture. "Vivian!"

"Yes?"

"Give Bobbery a bit of a break, he's been swimming for most of the last hour, you take a bit of time looking."

"O-okay."

"Cheep-cheep." Goombella scribbled that one beside the arguing picture. "If these guys're talking about the price, it's either expensive, or cheap."

Tippi quickly called out. "Ten minutes remaining."

The hero quietly cussed in Italian, shaking his head. "Never mind, if you guys can find any more, bring them up. Soon."

"On it."

"Okay there's me holding a... ray?"

Toadette started jotting down "Ray" for a second before frowning. "You're a guy, so man-ray. This is probably manta ray then."

Mario turned his head for a moment, then shook, looking at the last one they currently had.

_**Mario: Okay, she keeps getting these before we even think these over once we figured out they were ocean creatures... but Goombella was the one who kept just jotting ideas down over and over and not talking about what it could be. Ugh, the first elimination's**__** going to be... interesting.**_

**7/10 puzzles found, ?/10 solved. 9 minutes remaining.**

* * *

"One more oink-oink, one more oink-oink." The trio had stood at the dial for the past while, glaring as they kept finding the same colors over and over, green, red, green, red, silver, white, green, red.

Yoshi had eventually gotten the swing of his challenge as well, finally waiting more than a second and seeing numbers jumping out of the blocks he had to hamer, smashing the highest ones. Now Yoshi and Koops had basically a heap of coins sitting beside the oink-oink machine, Only heading back every so often to add more once they felt like the number was getting below 20.

"Come on, is there only one of whatever the last color is!?" Yoshi kicked the machine, leaning against it as another green oink-oink came down, Eva frowning for a moment.

Eva stared at them, leaning close over the fence and turning towards the other two. "Wait a second, could it simply be another shade of something rather than a completely different color?"

"Of course!" Flurrie's hand went to her head. "The menu yesterday had quite a few words based on colors altering. Right now we've got mostly reds and greens, so Eva, look over and TEC, help me try to think back on the menu."

The duo paced, Eva rushing around and searching through their captured ones, and looking at what they already had. "It mentioned Reds and Greens."

"Red-y or not, let you escape with all the "Green"..." Tec looked inside, but then he spotted it, hopping the fence and chasing after one of the oink-oinks. "It wasn't color! That one over there has a few darker spots on it!"

"Go TEC Go!"

**1 minute left**

* * *

"Vivian, Bobbery, Come on, have you found any?!"

"Sorry! I can't find any more, there's too many clams to search!"

"Have you solved the last puzzle you've got yet?

Goombella stared at the last one, grumbling "Ocean Light..."

"Angler Fish? Those have lights on them..." Toadette frowned, looking at it.

"No, no, it's gotta be something you can subtract whatever that is from it." The three tapped their chalk for a moment, but the time was slowly starting to tick away.

"Ten seconds left."

Vivian and Bobbery climbed out of the water. "Come on, you guys, you can do it!"

Bobbery shook the water off of himself. "I may be a bomb of the sea, but this competition is too much."

"Wait. Sea... That's it!" Mario scribbled down right before Tippi called time, dropping his chalk and hoping his guess was correct.

**Sorry for the long wait, but you can see why it took so long. Two missions, bouncing back and forth. I tried my best to give everyone a bit of focus and attention as well, Also blame losing my plans. Again.**

**Here's hoping it doesn't take another few MONTHS before I post a chapter.**


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